IBM PowerVM Best Practices

1 PowerVMBest PracticesAdriano de AlmeidaRafael AntonioliUrban BielSylvain DelabarreBart omiej GrabowskiKristian MilosFray L Rodr guezA collection of recommended Practices to enhance your use of the PowerVM featuresA resource to build on knowledge found in other PowerVM documentsA valuable reference for experienced IT specialists and IT architectsFront coverIBM PowerVM best PracticesOctober 2012 International Technical Support OrganizationSG24-8062-00 Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2012. All rights to Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADPS chedule Contract with IBM Edition (October 2012)This edition applies to: PowerVM Enterprise EditionVirtual I/O Server Version (product number 5765-G34)AIX Version (product number 5765-G99)IBM i Version (product number 5770-SS1)HMC Version SP02 POWER7 System Firmware Version AL730_87 Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in Notices on page xiii.

2 Copyright IBM Corp. 2012. All rights .. viiTa ble s .. ixExamples.. xiNotices .. xiiiTrademarks .. xivPreface .. xvThe team who wrote this book .. xvNow you can become a published author, too! .. xviiComments welcome .. xviiStay connected to IBM Redbooks .. xviiiChapter 1. Introduction and planning .. Keeping track of PowerVM features .. Virtual I/O Server specifications .. Virtual I/O Server minimum requirements .. Configuration considerations of the Virtual I/O Server .. Logical Volume Manager limits in a Virtual I/O Server .. Planning your Virtual I/O Server environment .. System Planning Tool .. Document as you go .. Hardware planning .. Sizing your Virtual I/O Server .. IBM Systems Workload Estimator.. Shared or dedicated resources .. Single, dual, or multiple Virtual I/O Servers.

3 Network and storage components .. Slot numbering and naming conventions .. Operating systems on virtual client partitions .. 13 Chapter 2. Installation, migration, and configuration .. Creating a Virtual I/O Server profile .. Processing mode - shared or dedicated .. Processing settings .. Memory settings .. Physical I/O adapters .. 21iv IBM PowerVM best Virtual I/O adapters .. Deploying a Virtual I/O Server with the System Planning Tool .. Virtual I/O Server installation .. Updating fix packs, service packs, and interim fixes .. Virtual I/O Server service strategy .. Approved third-party applications in the Virtual I/O Server .. Applying fix packs, service packs, and interim fixes .. Virtual I/O Server migration .. Options to migrate the Virtual I/O Server .. Virtual I/O Server migration considerations.

4 Multipathing software .. 30 Chapter 3. Administration and maintenance .. Backing up and restoring the Virtual I/O Server .. When to back up the Virtual I/O Server.. Virtual I/O Server backup strategy .. Backing up user-defined virtual devices .. Restoring the Virtual I/O Server .. NIM server resilience .. Dynamic logical partition operations .. Dynamically adding virtual Fibre Channel adapters .. Virtual media repository.. Power Systems server shutdown and startup .. 45 Chapter 4. Networking .. General networking considerations .. Shared Ethernet Adapter considerations .. Maximum transmission unit best Practices .. Network bandwidth tuning .. Single Virtual I/O Server .. Virtual network redundancy and failover technology .. Dual Virtual I/O Server with VLAN tagging.

5 Shared Ethernet Adapter failover with load sharing .. 58 Chapter 5. Storage .. Storage Considerations .. Virtual I/O Server rootvg storage.. Multipathing .. Mixing virtual SCSI and NPIV .. Fibre Channel adapter configuration .. Virtual Small Computer System Interface .. When to use a virtual Small Computer System Interface .. Configuring the Virtual I/O Server with a virtual SCSI .. Exporting virtual Small Computer System Interface storage.. 76 Contents Configuring the Virtual I/O client with virtual SCSI .. Shared Storage Pools .. Requirements per Shared Storage Pool node .. Shared Storage Pools specifications .. When to use Shared Storage Pools .. Creating the Shared Storage Pools .. SAN storage considerations .. Monitoring storage pool capacity .. Network considerations.

6 N-Port ID Virtualization .. When to use N-Port ID Virtualization .. Configuring the Virtual I/O Server with N-Port ID Virtualization .. Configuring the virtual I/O client with N-Port ID Virtualization .. 91 Chapter 6. Performance monitoring .. Measuring Virtual I/O Server performance .. Measuring short-term performance .. Network and Shared Ethernet Adapter monitoring .. Measuring long-term performance .. 100 Chapter 7. Security and advanced IBM PowerVM features.. Virtual I/O Server security .. IBM PowerVM Hypervisor security .. Virtual I/O Server network services .. Viosecure command .. IBM PowerSC .. Live Partition Mobility .. General considerations .. Implementing Live Partition Mobility .. Storage considerations .. Network considerations .. Active Memory Sharing.

7 When to use Active Memory Sharing .. Implementing Active Memory Sharing .. Active Memory Deduplication .. 118 Abbreviations and acronyms .. 119 Related publications .. 123 IBM Redbooks .. 123 Other publications .. 123 Online resources .. 124 Help from IBM .. 125vi IBM PowerVM best PracticesIndex .. 127 Copyright IBM Corp. 2012. All rights Select processor type .. 172-2 Processing Settings best Practices .. 202-3 Setting the maximum number of virtual adapters .. 222-4 Partition profile properties for source and target virtual adapters .. 233-1 NIM resilience solutions .. 413-2 Partition context menu .. 433-3 Save the running partition profile to a new profile .. 433-4 Overwrite the existing partition profile .. 443-5 The Power off system option is turned off .. 453-6 Automatically start when the managed system is powered on.

8 463-7 Partition start policy .. 474-1 Dual Virtual I/O Server configuration with two virtual switches .. 574-2 Dual Virtual I/O Server configuration with SEA and load balancing .. 595-1 Virtual SCSI client with multipathing from dual Virtual I/O Servers .. 655-2 Changing the default Maximum virtual adapters number .. 735-3 Select the appropriate virtual I/O client .. 745-4 NPIV configuration with dual Virtual I/O Servers.. 917-1 Live Partition Mobility migration validation function.. 1117-2 Partitions with dedicated memory .. 1147-3 Logical partitions with shared memory that run different regions .. 1157-4 Partitions that support day and night workloads .. 1157-5 Sporadically used logical partitions .. 1167-6 AMS memory weight on a logical partition .. 117viii IBM PowerVM best Practices Copyright IBM Corp.

9 2012. All rights PowerVM features.. 31-2 Minimum resources that are required for a Virtual I/O Server.. 41-3 Limitations for storage management .. 61-4 Network and storage components .. 122-1 Processor weighting example .. 194-1 Terminology that is used in this chapter .. 504-2 Typical maximum transmission units (MTUs) .. 535-1 Booting from a virtual SCSI with NPIV for data .. 675-2 Recommended settings for virtual I/O client virtual SCSI disks .. 815-3 Recommended settings for virtual I/O client virtual SCSI adapters .. 825-4 Shared Storage Pools minimum requirements per node .. 825-5 Shared Storage Pools minimums and maximums .. 837-1 Default open ports on the Virtual I/O Server .. 1067-2 IBM PowerSC security standards .. 108x IBM PowerVM best Practices Copyright IBM Corp. 2012. All rights Using the alt_root_vg command.

10 273-1 Virtual I/O Server backup to a remote file system .. 343-2 Daily viosbr schedule .. 353-3 List device mappings from a viosbr backup .. 363-4 The installios command from the HMC .. 393-5 Preparing NIM resources for Virtual I/O Server restore .. 403-6 HMC CLI startup commands .. 485-1 Manage the DS4000 and DS5000 disk driver .. 665-2 The fscsi attribute modification .. 685-3 Monitoring fcs adapter statistics .. 695-4 fcs attributes modification .. 695-5 Check num_cmd_elems using the SDDPCM pcmpath command .. 695-6 HMC virtual slots listing with a single Virtual I/O Server .. 725-7 Example of a virtual storage mapping convention .. 755-8 DS4800 mpio_get_config command .. 755-9 Change the reserve_policy disk attribute .. 785-10 Listing the hdisk0 and vscsi0 path attributes .. 805-11 Changing the vscsi0 priority for hdisk0.